


Ab Imo Pectore: The V Route

by didyougetmysteriousmessages



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, V Route, mysme
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-08-30 00:15:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8511394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/didyougetmysteriousmessages/pseuds/didyougetmysteriousmessages
Summary: The route that you've been craving...the beloved Jihyun Kim can finally be yours. But at what cost? ((Inspired by the lovely ghostingoverthekeys.tumblr.com. Please check out their Male!MC and Unknown Route fics! And give my tumblr some love if you want more of my stuff: didyougetmysteriousmessages.tumblr.com))





	1. The Saints Come Marching In

You clasp your hands together and pop your fingers as your tired eyes stare at the pile of documents on your desk. Light filters into Rika’s apartment and illuminating your work station in a soft glow. 

 _God, this is harder than I thought it’d be,_  you think, rubbing your eyes with your knuckles. _Who knew all of this went into planning a fundraising party?_

Emailing guests was the easy part, but arranging the venues, hiring the catering, and contacting vendors was the harder part. Everything had to be planned accordingly, and you weren’t exactly experienced in this type of stuff. Jaehee had been extraordinarily helpful, but she had enough of her own work thanks to that trust fund kid. His damn silver spoon was gouging out all the time that Jaehee could’ve offered you with his stupid, useless, infuriating cat projects!

You swivel your chair around in circles, pulling your knees to your chin and clasping your hands around your legs, restlessness itching away at you as you grew more and more frustrated with your work. You let out a loud sigh, burrowing your forehead into your knees as the chair slowly swivels to a stop. 

After a few moments, you rise from the chair, staring at your phone glowing in the corner of the room while it rested on your bed, attached to its charger. RFA chat notifications flood the screen.

It’s been four days since you joined this mysterious organization. 

It was beyond you, really. Normally, you don’t follow mysterious messages from a mysterious man (if that even was a picture of himself that he had sent to you...) to an unknown location. All of it screams STRANGER DANGER, don’t get kidnapped, don’t be stupid!!! But in that particular instance, finding yourself in a rather cheerful mood, you figured it couldn’t do any harm to pass a note about a missing phone onto some poor sap. 

In the end, you had been the poor sap. 

Why did you even agree to this?? You walk over to the bed and flop down onto it face-first, feeling the phone bounce and twist around before settling back down. You had enough work without this extra, overflowing,  _volunteered_ service. You groan into the pillow, crossing your arms and sitting up a bit, staring at the blank wall. 

Nothing you can do about that now. You never go back on a promise. 

You were lucky, you suppose. Almost every member of this organization was extremely influential, not to mention fucking hot as hell. Zen was a famous idol, one whose name you’d heard a few times and who you were shocked to meet in the chatroom. Jumin was the infamous director of C&R, known for his looks as well as his charms. Seven, though unknown to you before, was apparently one of the most skilled hackers in the world (and one of the biggest goofballs you’d ever met, to boot). Jaehee, though not famous, was incredibly talented and capable. Yoosung was the only other person who seemed normal and who you related to the most. And then…there was V.

Wow. Just wow. Honestly, he floored you. You’d heard of his photography before, seen his images floating around aesthetic tumblr blogs. His infrequent presence in the chat room, his kind demeanor, and his sincere way of speaking left you wanting to get to know him more. But he was like the ghost of the RFA, always mentioned, but almost never present, like the imprint of an image fading away. 

You glance over to the end table beside you. An old photograph sits on the smooth wooden surface. V is there, his arm thrown around Rika, his eyes crinkling as he smiles with complete joy. Rika is next to him, her golden hair falling gracefully from her head, green eyes soft but bright, small lips pressed into a smile. They both look younger, happier.

No. There was the ghost of the RFA. Rika. 

When you first stumbled into her apartment, you were terrified to touch anything personal of hers, afraid of setting off some alarm or something. Now, though, you figured everything in plain sight was free to observe. You feel oddly sentimental right now, wondering what the RFA members were like before Rika passed. 

You reach your hand out and grab the picture frame, staring at it. The bottom right corner is folded up a bit, you notice. You turn it around and undo the backing. When you pull it off, you immediately notice small, pretty cursive written on the back of the photograph. 

_The beginning of the rest of our lives. You are my paradise._

You feel like you’ve violated someone’s privacy. You bite your lip, your eyebrows creasing as you frown. A pang of jealousy pricks at you, but you shake it off. You smooth down the bent corner and return the backing to the photograph, setting it back exactly where it was.

You sigh again and roll over on your back, glancing at the clock. 10:55 PM. _God, I wasn’t paying attention to the time. I’ve been working for hours._ You were supposed to do homework tonight, but the way your body ached, you knew you were too tired for it, mentally.You sigh again, reluctantly picking up the phone next to you. You’ve missed a couple of conversations. 

> _\- MC has entered the chatroom._  - 

> **707:** whoa whoa!! Sound the alarms!
> 
> **707:** it’s the lady of the hour!
> 
> **MC:** hi, seven!
> 
> **MC:** sorry I’ve been gone for a bit. I was doing prep work for the party
> 
> **Jumin:** Working hard, I see? That’s good. 
> 
> **Jumin:** Hard work always provides good results. We will do well with your diligence. 
> 
> **707:** Ya lol 

You scroll up and read some of the past chats. Most of it was Jumin talking about his visit to the grape farm, and then him and Zen arguing about wine for cats. _What the fuck._ You rub your temples, chuckling a little. You liked cats, of course, but this guy took it way too far way too often. 

> **MC:** i see you’re coming up with more ways to torture Jaehee, Jumin?
> 
> **Jumin:** I do not consider it as torture. Cats are beautiful creatures that must be appreciated. 
> 
> **MC:** well, I’d appreciate if you gave your assistant more time to help me with the party. >:T
> 
> **Jumin:** I see. I will consider it. 
> 
> **Jumin:** I want the party to be a success, even if we do not know when it will be. If you need more of Assistant Kang’s help, I will review her schedule. 
> 
> **MC:** yeah, ok. Thanks. 
> 
> **707:** elly elly! I love my elly! 
> 
> **707:** just give her to me, Mr.Director!  I’ll take good care of her lol ~<3
> 
> **Jumin:** Absolutely not. 
> 
> **MC:** don’t make him arrest you for assault, lol. 
> 
> **707:** oh my ;) 

You giggle softly, rubbing your eyes again. Seven was so silly. Jumin was fun to tease, but sometimes he could be such a jerk. You didn’t dislike Jumin, you just disliked the way he treated Jaehee. He wasn’t that bad of a guy, honestly, but he had a serious lack of tact. You wonder if he was like that all the time. How does he go about his life being so robotic? There had to be more there.

> **Jumin:** My Elizabeth has been asking for my attention. My apologies, but I must leave. 
> 
> **707:** awww!!! Tell Elly I said good night!! :3c
> 
> **Jumin:** No. 
> 
> **Jumin:** Good night, MC. 
> 
> **MC:** oh ok night Jumin.
> 
> _Jumin Han has left the chatroom._

Ah. Just like that, the stoic director was gone. You hum to yourself, your thoughts wandering. You turn your attention back to the phone.

> **MC:** well anyways how are you tonight Seven? 
> 
> **707:** ugh! i managed to finish some of the work lol. 
> 
> **707:** had a hard time working today but if I don’t work now, it’ll be hell tmr T_T
> 
> **MC:** amen to that. 
> 
> **707:** amen hallelujah!!!!
> 
> **707:** but
> 
> **707:** i feel like Zen and Jumin
> 
> **707: are like cats and dogs**
> 
> **MC:** nice comparison, lol.

Seven goes on to talk about cats and puppies, and you smile as you chat with him. He jokes about making Elizabeth an RFA member, and you roll your eyes. _Careful, Seven, Jumin might actually take that seriously._ Then he jokes about V, and mockingly pretends to summon him, when-

> _V has entered the chatroom._

You freeze. Wait, really? It’s him! You feel an odd taste rise to your mouth, but you quickly swallow. For some reason, you feel nervous.

> **V:** Luciel.
> 
> **707:** wow!
> 
> **V:** You were here too, MC. 
> 
> **MC:** seven wth are you a wizard???
> 
> **707:** lol God Seven!!

V continues to chat with you both, informing you of the party date. You almost drop your phone. _It’s in a week_. 

A fucking week! How the hell are you going to make that work?! Panic rises in your throat. Why is he doing this?

But you swallow your fear and support him in chat. _He probably made the best decision. I hope._ He goes on to inform you that he’s going on a trip, and your heart sinks. You were hoping of seeing him more in the chat room, for help with the party as well as…uh…company, but it looks like he’s going to be as scarce as ever.

Seven informs V that his phone now has an indicator to let him know when it’s bugged. You frown again, your eyes wandering to the door of the apartment. _Why does he need a feature like that? Who would try to bug his phone?_  There seemed to be so many secrets in this organization. It makes you more nervous about your decision to join.

> **V:** Then I’ll get going. 
> 
> **707:** yup! talk to you later!
> 
> **V:** MC, see you at the party. 
> 
> **MC:** okay~ see you then. :) 
> 
> **V:** Please take care of yourself. 
> 
> **V:** Excuse me. 
> 
> _V has left the chatroom._

You sigh and rub your temple again. You were getting a small headache from all the stress, but you want to trust V’s decision. He wouldn’t have made the party happen in a week if it was impossible to do, right? You resign yourself to trusting him, but secretly you feel disappointed. 

V was such a wild card, honestly. You didn’t know much about him, and you knew you wanted to trust him. But his decision making seemed…contrived, at best. Who would accept someone into their organization because they thought it was a sign from their dead girlfriend? Who would set a fundraising party usually planned months in advance in a week? Something about all this felt off, and you couldn’t help feeling uneasy ever since you set foot in this apartment. 

Seven encourages you in the chat before saying goodbye, reminding you to get your sleep. You hope you’re able to. He signs out of the chat room, and your finger hovers over the Exit Chat button, when- 

> **Unknown:** ted_so# * long

Your eyes widen and you inhale sharply. _What-_

> **Unknown:**!lo# $wai_–
> 
> **Uknown:** …
> 
> **Unknown:** %wated_I@m
> 
> **Unknown:**.
> 
> **Unknown:** ———##
> 
> ******Unknown:** I am
> 
> **Unknown:** going to
> 
> **Unknown:** corrupt you

You log out of the chat room swiftly, mind racing. _What was that?_ Fear grips your stomach again, and you look around nervously. 

Unknown knew the location of the apartment. V insisted you were safe, but were you really? You had hoped that the unknown person was a friend of Rika’s, a benevolent force, but their messages in the chat room just now seemed to prove otherwise. 

Wait. Shit. You had no proof. You re-entered the chat room, and the messages were still there. You take screenshots quickly before leaving again, not wanting to be in the same space as those creepy messages.

An uneasy pit gnaws at your stomach. You exhale softly, getting up from the bed. You go to the closet and pulled out the baseball bat you’d brought with you when you moved in. _It’s never bad to have a bit of protection._

You return to your bed, feeling the deep ache of exhaustion pulling at your body. It was almost midnight, now, though you felt like you had stayed up til the morning. You pick up your phone and turn it on silent, planning on ignoring the chat room until you were fully rested. You were upset about having to do this all in a week. You deserve some R&R. You yawn loudly and shove yourself under the covers, tangling the sheets with your feet and curling up on your left side, facing the wall. Sleep overcame you quickly, lulling you into unconsciousness. 

 

* * *

 

It is the sudden trill from your phone that wakes you. 

You open your eyes slowly, confused. You smack your lips and rub your eyes again, sleepily glancing at the clock. It was 3 AM, sharp. Why had the phone gone off? It should be on silent. 

You would have ignored it, but you still felt a little unsettled from the odd messages in the chat room last night. You click the unlock button on the side of your phone, and the screen reads, _New message from: Unknown._  Your heart sinks. 

You slowly enter your phone’s password, opening the RFA app. 

You click on the messages icon, waiting as your phone loaded for a moment. 

Then, the messages appear. 

> _< Unknown: It’ll be really fun from now on. Enjoy your time with everyone. I’ll go get you soon. _
> 
> _MC: Who the hell are you? >_

You had forgotten about these. You’d gotten these when you first entered the apartment. The message had scared you, and when you told Seven, he promised security was tight at the apartment. Now, though, it made you feel even more uneasy, because right below your message was a new one, received just now. 

> You look so peaceful when you sleep, did you know that? 

You bolt up into a sitting position, gripping the phone tightly. Your other hand digs into the sheets. 

You look around the room wildly, but the room is too dark to see. Moonlight beams in through the blinds, illuminating soft fuzzy shapes that could look like silhouettes of a person. 

You stumble out of bed, tripping a little over the bat and falling against the wall. You scramble down and pick it up, dropping your phone in the process. You pick up the phone with your other hand, struggling to find your phone’s flashlight feature. It beams on suddenly, illuminating the chair with your jacket hanging on the back. You almost scream, thinking the jacket was a person, but stifle it just in time. 

You swing the your phone wildly around the room. Did something just move? Shadows dance around the light, mocking you. 

Your heart is pounding and your breaths are coming out ragged. You can’t think. Your mind is racing. You take a few hesitant steps forward. 

That’s when you see it. 

Your phone illuminates it for a moment and it takes you a few more seconds to process it, but once you do, you swing your phone back to the window. 

 

It’s open. 

 

There’s shards of glass on the floor. 

Your breath hitches in your throat, and your mouth falls open. You grip the bat tighter, panic rising in your chest. 

There’s someone in the apartment. 


	2. Philia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You've been here before.

You want to scream, to shout out for help, anything, but your body is totally frozen. 

Tears spring to your eyes as you panic, and you immediately look down at your phone. You have to call for help! You consider dialing the police, but your hands immediately call Seven. The phone barely has time to start ringing when suddenly-

SSCCCREEECHH!!

You shout, dropping the phone onto the bed. It sparks once, screen flashing, before blacking out. You grab it again, desperately pressing the unlock button, but it doesn’t react. Holding down the unlock button does nothing. It’s completely fried. 

How the fuck-

You hear someone snicker on the opposite end of the room and freeze again. 

“Not so brave without your toy, hm?”

A knot forms in your stomach, and for a moment you feel like passing out. But you straighten your back, standing firm, and slowly grip both hands around the bat’s handle. 

“Don’t come any closer,” you hiss, glowering at the darkness. 

There is no response. 

Thunder rumbles in the distance. 

It’s quiet. You can’t hear anything. _Uh. I guess they listened?_ Probably not. But you can’t see a fucking thing, even with your eyes adjusted to the darkness. It’s too pitch black. 

You look up at where the hidden cameras are, praying that Seven is watching.

 

* * *

 

_Seven rubs his eyes, glancing up at his computer. He’d fallen asleep while trying to get ahead on the work for tomorrow- well, now, today. He moaned, leaning back in his chair and grabbing his almost-emptied bag of Honey Buddha Chips._

_“Fuck,” he sighed, rubbing his temple absent mindedly.  
_

_He was exhausted._

_Sleep never came easy to him, and when it did, it came in spurts._

_Oh, well. He might as well try to go to bed. He starts to get up, but then pauses._ Maybe I should check on MC, _he thinks, glancing back at his darkened bedroom._

_He clicks on the security camera icon on his computer, head resting in his other hand. The program loads slowly, monitor flickering in his dimly lit room._

_When it’s done loading, he stares blankly._

_All of the video feeds were nothing but static._

_He sits upright, blinking rapidly as if it were a trick of his mind. He wipes his eyes furiously and adjusts his glasses._

_They’re still static._

_He clicks the mic button, trying to toggle the sound in the apartment, but it’s silent._

_What the fuck was this?_

 

* * *

Suddenly a flash of lightning illuminates your room, and you see him- just for an instant- a strange, twisted looking man with a strange mouth covering and tattoos snaking up his arm. There’s a spiked bracelet around his wrist, and his hoodie hugs his arms from behind. He’s in front of you and blocking the door, your only exit. You can’t see his eyes; it looks like he’s wearing goggles of some sort-

The room plunges back into darkness, and you hear a crack of thunder echo loudly outside, shaking the glass windows. 

“There you are,” you breathe, tightening your grip on the bat. 

“Hi,” he says slyly. You can’t see him in the darkness, but you can almost feel his sneer as he stares at you. 

You stick your middle finger up at him, face twisting in frustration. He laughs in response, declaring, “You’re fiesty! This might actually be fun.”

_Wait. Can he see me?_

The goggles. Your mind races as your heart nearly jumps out of your chest in fear. 

He can see you in the dark. 

_Great. I’m at a disadvantage here. What should I do?_

Fight or flight. Flight is out of the picture, for now. Time to square up. 

_Like hell I’m going down without a fight._

You inch your way around the bed, feeling its corners with your knee as you slowly shuffle forward. You want a better vantage point to fight with. It gives him a clearer shot at you, but it also gives you the ability to strike first. At least, that’s the best you can come up with. 

“Get out of my apartment,” you warn, “or you’ll regret it.”

“Ha! Your apartment?” he leers. “You’re standing on hallowed ground. If only you _knew_  whose shoes you fill, bitch. You should praise the day I brought you here.”

Rika. The hacker. You shift on your feet, eyes narrowing. “So you are the Unknown from the chat room.”

“Nice to meet you,” he says with mocked sweetness. “I’m a huge fan of your work.”

“What work?” you ask, biding for time. _Please let there be another flash of lightning,_ you pray. _I need to see if he’s moved._ It was hard to hear over the rumbling of thunder.

He snickers again, and you can hear him wipe his face. “Ahaha, that’s right. It’s a little too early, isn’t it? You’re but a fledgeling. Haven’t done much. It hasn’t been long enough. Savior wouldn’t approve. But I couldn’t wait any longer. Plans have changed. There’s not enough time. I have to take you to Paradise right now.”

What? The fuck? There was so much to take in there. Fear sits like a rock in your gut, and you wish you were anywhere but here, but no matter how many times you wished it were a dream, you could feel the cold metal of the bat on your fingers and the hair on your neck standing up straight. 

Your mind spins. Something’s not right. He’s acting…odd. He’s breathing heavily now, wheezing a bit and laughing softly. Lightning flashes, softer this time, but enough for you to see him with his hand clasped on his forehead. The cover over his mouth had fallen, and drool was dripping from his bared teeth. 

You need more time. 

“How do you know Rika?” you ask, remembering what he had said. He pauses for a moment, and there is a brief silence that hangs in the air. “You don’t deserve to say that name,” he hisses, rocking on his feet. You hear the wood creak under him and tense up, not sure where he was moving. “It’s not even real. Nothing is real, here. Nothing matters aside from Magenta. Magenta. Mint Eye. Paradise. We need to go to paradise.”

He was babbling now, and seemed to be losing grip on reality. What the hell had this guy smoked before coming here? You didn’t intend to find out. 

You grit your teeth, fear shooting through you. You didn’t want to die here. You weren’t sure if this man was going to kill you, but you weren’t going to waste another second wondering what he was going to do to you. 

Another flash of lightning showed that he had moved closer to you, arm snaking into his pocket to retrieve something. He is looking down, probably trying to see where he was grabbing. Now is your chance!

You leap forward and swing wildly, bringing the bat down with as much force as you can muster. 

_CRACK_

He howls in pain, scrambling backwards. Rain pounds against the window now, hitting the apartment in sheets. Water pours into the open window, leaking onto the floor and spreading into the room. The wind howls through the open shutter, putting your nerves on edge. 

Lightning, your greatest ally, lights up the room, showing you that he had fallen backwards, gripping the arm you had struck. He looks like he’s ready to kill you. 

“You fucking WHORE-” he screams, but before he had the chance to retaliate, you swing the bat again, letting out a defiant scream. It makes another satisfying CRACK, coming into contact with his skull. 

But suddenly, his hand grabs the bat, and when you pull back, you feel the resistance. Lightning washes the room with bright light, and you’re suddenly face to face, staring into his dark black goggles with panic. You can see now that they’re very mechanical, made from some unknown metal and calibrated to act like binoculars, their ocular glasses growing smaller to compensate for your close proximity. He grimaces at you, teeth bared like a wild animal. Blood drips down his face, splashing onto the floor. You can feel his rage seeping through him.

Without giving it a second thought, you let go of the bat and sprint for the door to your right. He wasn’t expecting you to flee, and he shouts after you, tripping a bit as he tries to pursue. 

You unlock the door in an instant and swing it open, bursting forth from the apartment. 

 

* * *

 

_Seven pulls out his phone, seeing a missed call from MC at 3:13am. His breath catches. Had something happened?  
_

_He starts to panic, opening the command prompt on his computer and typing rapidly. He had no time to spare. He needed to be sure MC was okay. After trying to chase down the hacker, he had a bad feeling about this._

_They hadn’t even told her about the bomb yet._

_What if it had gone off?_

_He pulls open his internet tab while typing, opening up a GoogleView map of the apartment address. It showed in real time that the complex was not on fire._

_Well, that was good. But what was going on?_

_A bad taste settled in his mouth as he focused on typing out the code._

 

* * *

 

You pause for a moment in the hallway, wildly glancing at the elevators down the hall. It would take too long for them to get to your floor. You turn and sprint to your left towards the closer stairwell. You can hear footsteps following you, and as he grunts, he calls out, “I’m gonna smash your head in you goddamn fucking piece of shit-”

You leap down the stairs, spinning around as the stairwell twisted and catching a glimpse of Unknown chasing after you with the bat in his hand. You don’t look back again.

You’ve never run so fast in your life. You’re practically clearing the entire set of stairs on each landing, feet moving like a blur as you desperately fling yourself downwards. Your lungs heave with the effort, but adrenaline shoots through your veins like a drug. 

You’ve never felt so alive.

Fourteen flights is a long way to go. You can hear Unknown stomping after you, shouting. 

He’s getting farther away. 

You’re faster.

Desperate hope bursts in your chest like a wildfire, and you feel a rush of excitement as you near the final landing, when

you trip, falling down and letting out a yelp. In your haste, you lost your balance. You land on your feet but your left foot is twisted, and you scream in pain, quickly readjusting yourself. You test your foot on the ground and wince. It’s definitely sprained.

The sound of Unknown stomping closer propels you forward, but you’re in a lot of pain now. 

Panicked, you start limping quickly towards the landlord’s office, crying out, but your calls are drowned out over the noise of the storm. You can see the office sign glowing lazily in the downpour. Rain drenches you in an instant, but you are too terrified to care. 

You realize that the office is closed once you get closer. Its lights are completely off, and you stare at the empty office in the glare of the lightning flash. You spin around, staring back at the distant stairwell you came out of, and you see Unknown’s shadow growing larger as he prepares to reach the final landing. 

“FUCK!” you shout, spinning around and sprinting for the gates surrounding the apartment complex as best you can.

 

* * *

 

_Seven manages to get the sound portion of the CCTV system back online, but all it projects is the loud rumbling of the storm. There’s no discernible noise coming from within the apartment._

_He continues typing rapidly, staring at one monitor. The video screens on the other monitor start flickering for a moment, blurred images trying to break through the static._

Please let her be sleeping safe and sound in her bed, _Seven prayed._ God, please, let her be okay.

 

* * *

 

You throw yourself against the iron fence, reaching up as far as you could. The rain had made the iron bars slippery and impossible to grasp, plus they were too tall to climb. You curse again, wheezing as you panicked. You grabbed the bars and shook them as hard as you could, screaming into the unforgiving sky.

A bad feeling suddenly washes over you. You turn to see a silhouette standing at the entrance of the alleyway behind you, illuminated under the fluorescent lighting, one hand in a fist and the other gripping the bat. He’s engulfed in shadows, but his white hair glints in the light, and you can see his teeth shining. His back is heaving as he breathes heavily. 

For a moment, you both stare at each other. Predator and prey. He’s cornered you, and he knows it. Fear clings to every bit of your being as you stare at him with wild, frightened eyes. 

 Suddenly, he lunges straight towards you, closing the ground between you with startling speed.

You scream and turn back around, running to the end of the fence line. You’ve reached the corner point of the fence and turn to the right, following it down the next side, desperately clawing at the iron bars. You are at the back of the building now, and completely engulfed in shadow. Your fingers drum across iron, searching for some kind of exit, anything.

Your hand suddenly falls through a large gap of air and you gasp, falling against the iron bars with your face. Cold metal presses into your wet skin. Two of the bars had been pried away, leaving a large enough gap for you to squeeze through. You feel the entrance of the gap, confused at first, and then it clicks.

You shove yourself through the gap without a second thought, stumbling forward. Your shirt catches on the broken metal, but you force your way through, feeling the metal scrape into your skin and hearing the ripping sound as you make it to the other side.

You can’t see very well what’s right in front of you because it’s so dark, but up ahead, it looks like there’s a gas station illuminated in harsh light. Distant, but safe. Freedom.

You limp as quickly as you can towards it, trying to run. If only you hadn’t twisted your ankle. If only you hadn’t joined this fucking organization. If only Seven had answered. If only-

The ground dips suddenly and you cry out in fear. Your foot lands oddly and you lose your balance, falling forwards. You roll down the incline, rocks slamming into your skin as you tumble over them, grass stuffing itself in your mouth, until you finally come to a stop, splashing into knee-deep water. 

There is a ditch behind the complex. How could you have forgotten?

 

* * *

 

 _The video feed slowly starts un-pixellating. Seven drums his fingers impatiently as the resolution gradually resolves itself._ Come on, come on, come on, _he thinks impatiently._

_Video feed 1 is the first to come on. The hallway is dark and reveals nothing._

_Video feed 2 slowly flickers on. The kitchen is as it was before, microwave reading 3:20am._

_Video feed 3 lights up. The entrance to the apartment._

_The door is swung wide open.  
_

_Seven’s heart jumps into his throat._

_Video feed 4. The living room/bedroom area._

_A window is open. Broken glass is scattered on the ground. Water has poured in from the open glass, soaking into the ground. The bed is misshapen and empty._

_Blood splatters on the floor and up against the wall._

_Seven leaps out of his chair, flinging the lights on in his office. He searches for his keys wildly, panic pounding in his chest._

_This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening._

This can’t be happening!

 

* * *

 

You sputter in the water, coughing. The rain had just started, but it was pouring down fast now. The water level is rising rapidly. You can’t tell how far away the other side of the bank is, but you start moving towards the gas station again. A flash of lightning shows that you’ll have to swim just a little bit to reach the other side. 

You push your way through the icy cold water, shivering violently. You’re still in your pajamas. The water was unforgiving, but it made you hyper-aware of your senses. The chill of the water streaks across the back of your shoulder and you gargle out a cry of pain. The broken metal had cut your skin deeper than you thought, and your open wound aches in the icy water. 

Your breath comes out ragged, desperate, yet determined. The ground disappears from your feet, and you’re completely submerged, swimming fiercely through the rising flood only for a few moments before you feel the ground rise beneath you again. 

You stride up the slope, water sloshing from your body and pulling at your legs .Falling to your knees, you feel exhaustion overtake you. _No. Can’t stop now. Have to keep going._

You crawl up the side of the ditch, rocks scraping your knees and hands, stinging your skin, but you don’t stop. You hear a splashing sound and glance behind you, dread filling your chest. Unknown is swimming quickly in the water, getting closer with every stroke. He’s closed the ground between you with ease. _What the fuck is he? A monster?_

You let out a broken wail and try to scramble out of the ditch.

Your ankle is on fire now, hurt from the pressure of trying to run and swim. You can’t even stand on it, and you fall back down to your knees. The water sliding down the side of the ditch makes you slip back down. You struggle to climb over it. 

An overwhelming fear pushes you onward, the carnal desire for escape. It gives you strength you didn’t even know you had, and for a moment, you feel hope blaze up again in your chest, reaching over the edge of the ditch.   
  


 

You’re nearly on top of the bank when you feel someone yank your hair backwards.

 

You scream in pain, face scrunching up as you’re pulled back. You fall on your back and immediately begin to scramble, but there’s a force on top of you now, pinning you down. 

_NO!! NO!! NO!!_

You stare up at him, eyes wild. He’s panting heavily, but his grin is from ear to ear. “You can’t escape, you little fucking-” 

You knee him in the crotch and knock the wind out of him. As you push him off of you and attempt to climb back up the slope, he grabs you and manages to throw you back down to the water. 

With a loud slap, you hit the surface, sinking below for a few moments before rising back up to gasp for air. 

You scramble backwards and land on your ass, staring up at Unknown as another flash of lightning streaks through the sky. He had thrown you down to the opposite side of the bank. 

You scream in frustration, turning and trying to climb back over the other side. He throws himself into the water, rushing over to you. You vomit up water and bits of dirt, your insides squirming in pain. 

Before you know it, he’s on top of you again, hands wrapping around your neck. 

He grins down at you as he chokes you, thumbs digging into your throat. You hit him with all your might, fists pounding into his chest, but you’re too weak. You feel fire burn in your chest, spreading into your lungs and down your gut. You gargle for air, but it’s no use. “Stop,” you mouth, eyes rolling back in your head. He laughs maniacally as you start to fade away, and then suddenly stops, staring at you. 

There is a brief moment where you stare at each other, his hands wrapped around your neck, your eyes pleading him.

He lets go of you suddenly and you gasp for air, coughing wildly. He grabs you by the hair and starts dragging you back towards the fence. 

You grimace as your scalp burns from the tension of being dragged and you reach up with your hands, grasping at your hair and trying to claw at his hands, but with no success.

He shoves you through the entrance and you land on the hard cement, groaning. He follows and starts dragging you again, this time by the arm. You pant heavily, trying to regain some of your energy. He grabs the bat lying on the ground and continues onward.

He’s pulled you to the alleyway now. You start struggling against him, trying to break free from his grip. He throws you down and kicks you, hard, in the side. You groan loudly, gripping your ribs. 

He hits you square in your shoulder with the butt of the bat and you gasp sharply, too tired to yell. He paces around you, hands balled into fists. He hits you again, this time lower on your back, and you whimper. He kicks you again for good measure, though this time not as hard. He wipes his face with his hand and throws the bat to the ground. It clatters loudly against the pavement. 

He grabs you again, this time picking you up bridal style. Your head lands on his shoulder, and you feel your head spinning. His chest is firm. He carries you over to a black car parked inconspicuously in the parking lot. 

Opening the passenger door, he shoves you down onto the seat. You land with an _oomf_. He pulls out some zip ties from his pocket, leaning down towards you. His messy hair slaps you in the face as he pushes you forward, tying your hands behind you. He then moves to your ankles. You feel like vomiting.

He rests his hand on the car door, staring down at you as he pants. You moan again, shifting in your seat. He spits down on the ground, wiping his face again, and turns to open the trunk, leaving the car door open.

You muster all the strength you have left.

You attempt to rise from the car, pain searing through your ankle again, but you fall and land hip-first onto the pavement, slumping up against the car next to you. You grunt and try to pull your legs out, your hands straining behind you, when suddenly he’s standing behind you. 

He reaches down and presses a cloth to your face. You struggle against it at first, breathing in sharply, but suddenly your limbs begin to sag. You feel pressure pulling you down to the ground and you let out a soft groan. 

He grunts as he picks you back up, shoving you again into the car. He buckles your seat belt, standing back and watching as you fade away. 

“Goodnight, bitch,” he pants triumphantly. 

 

* * *

 

_Seven had finally found his keys, hidden behind a can of Dr. Pepper. He whirled around, preparing to bolt out of his house, when he noticed a figure on the screen._

_Video Screens 5, 6, and 7 had come back online. They were placed around the complex leading up to Rika’s apartment door._

_On Video screen 7, the parking lot, he saw a figure dragging something across the ground. It pauses to kick at the object before picking it up. It opens its car door and shoves the mass inside._

_Seven stops breathing._

_As it moves to the trunk, leaving the passenger door open, something slides back out of the car. The figure makes its way back to the car door, reaching down and pausing. Picking the object back up, the figure shoves it into the car again, standing back and staring at it before slamming the door shut. It makes its way to the drivers seat._

_Seven clicks the control buttons, zooming the camera in._

_The figure sits in the drivers seat, closing its door. It pulls out a cigarette, flicking on a lighter. In the flash of lightning, Seven sees your face illuminated against the interior of the car. He can see that you’re unconscious._

_He bolts out of his room, sprinting to his car._

 

* * *

Unknown pants heavily as he sits in the passenger seat, staring at you. He reaches over to the glove compartment, opening it and grabbing a cigarette box and a lighter. He grabs a cig from the box, sticking it in his mouth and flicking the lighter until it catches on the end of the cig. 

He takes a deep inhale of smoke, eyes lighting up. He removes his goggles, tossing them to the back seat, and glances over at you again, exhaling smoke from his mouth. His green eyes glint with excitement.

He licks his lips and reaches over to you. He adjusts the hair falling wildly around your face for a moment and chuckles, inhaling deeply from his cigarette.

“That kinda turned me on,” he exhales, smoke billowing from his nostrils. “That was quite the chase.”

He glances outside the windshield, peering through the sheets of rain. 

“It’s a bad night to go to paradise,” he murmurs, picking up the cig in between his forefinger and thumb. He sticks the keys into the ignition, feeling the car growl as it woke. “But you’re lucky you’re invited.” He puts the cig back into his mouth.

He puts the car in reverse, one hand on the wheel, and stares at you again. 

“…I don’t know why I didn’t kill you,” he huffs through his cigarette. “Savior was right. Your fate lies with Mint Eye.”

With that, he backed out of the parking spot, tires screeching as he threw the car back into drive and sped out of the apartment complex.

Thunder ripped through the sky as the rain poured down from the dark clouds above. 


	3. The Final Requiem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things never leave you.

_“Just look into my eyes, Rika.”_

_Her small blonde head slowly raises, revealing her disheveled face. Her eyes are wide, pupils frighteningly small. She seems distant, like part of her is here and part of her is someplace else._

_“Whenever you feel afraid, look into my eyes.”  
_

_Her mouth parts, small pants billowing from her lips. Her hands, previously clutching her head in despair, slowly fall to her side. She stares numbly, her small body shaking._

_“Save me,” she whispers.  
_

_“I will. I’ll save you.”_

_She rises slowly, arms outstretched, a smile creeping across her face. She starts laughing, but her eyes are wide and full of despair. Her hands fall upon his face, caressing him, clinging to him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. Her laughter turns into wailing as the tears fall from her eyes. Her body shudders, and she gasps quickly, nearly wheezing as the panic attack sets in._

_He rubs her back, determined to be her rock, her source of strength. When it passes, she’s completely still, her hands wrapped around his neck as if to anchor herself to him._

_Thunder booms loudly in the distance, rain pouring down on the apartment windows mercilessly. She never liked thunderstorms.. It always set her on edge._

_She tilts her head up, lips brushing against his ear. His heartbeat quickens. “Promise me you’ll save me,” she murmurs, and he could feel her breath hot on his neck._

_“I promise.”_

_She pulls back from his embrace, staring deeply into his mint eyes. She chuckles, and a different emotion flashes in her eyes._

_All at once, she seems incredibly dangerous. Thunder crashes outside, making the glass windows vibrate from its ferocity._

_Her eyes scan his face like a map, studying his features with a small smirk. She slowly raises her hands up, cupping his cheeks, and gradually trails her thumbs up his cheekbones, stopping below his eyes. She gently traces the outline of his eye with her right hand. Her eyes look hungry, somehow, like a predator about to devour its prey._

_“Liar,” she hisses.  
_

_She plunges her thumbs into his eye sockets, entering from below the lower eyelid and then jerking up forcefully._

_He screams, hands immediately grasping at hers and trying to yank her off of him. He falls backwards and pulls her down in the process. They both land on the floor with a loud crash. Her fingers dig into his face, scratching across his cheeks, but she releases his head as his hands fly up to cup his eyes._

_She straddles him as he writhes on the floor, staring down at him silently. She grabs onto his shirt, slowly thrusting her pelvis against his as he tries to wiggle free, and starts laughing again. “I like you like this,” she mumbles, a crazed look in her eyes._

_He pauses for a moment, panting. He can feel his loose eyeballs resting in the palm of his hands as he covers his face._

_Suddenly, he jerks upward, forcing her backwards. She falls off of him with an oomf, startled. His eyes are still covered, but he moves quickly, staggering to his feet. He stumbles against the wall, its cool surface pressing into his back._

_Rain pounds against the windows._

_“Rika…” he moans, shaking.  
_

_She stares at him, still sitting on the floor motionless._

_“Rika, I’m hurt…you…you hurt me…”  
_

_She stares at him._

_“Please…call for help…my eyes…”  
_

_She rises slowly, tilting her head at him._

_“Do you still love me?”_

_There’s a long pause as he pants, gritting his teeth._

_Finally, he says, “Yes. I love you, Rika.”_

_She walks over to him slowly, placing her small hands over his as he covers his eyes, trying to hold up his luxated eyeballs._

_“Then let me see you,” she whispers sweetly.  
_

_Another long pause passes, time seeming to slow. The pain in his eye sockets is indescribable. Her face is very close to his now, hands still placed on top of his. Slowly, he opens his hands._

_Her breath catches, and she stares at him with wild wonder._

_“Rika…?”  
_

_She grabs one of his loose eyeballs, raising it up. He flinches, grimacing, and moves as if to stop her, but she soothingly whispers, “Ssssh, sssssh.” A splatter of blood falls on the floor. She faces the pupil of the eyeball upwards at her face, staring down at it, and ignores his moans and whimpers. “Can you see me?”_

_“Yes,” he whimpers.  
_

_“Am I beautiful?”  
_

_“Rika, please…”  
_

_“Am I still your soul mate?”  
_

_“Please…!”  
_

_“Is this what you want?”  
_

_He’s shaking visibly as another moan escapes his lips, snot dripping from his nose as tears leak from his empty eye sockets._

_“You’re pathetic.”_

_She lets the eyeball go, watching as it falls. It tugs on the exposed optic nerve as it reaches the end of its length, bouncing against the tension. He screams again, grabbing at it and cupping his hands to his face, blood slowly oozing from his eye sockets. He feels water drip down on him from a leak in the ceiling, plopping onto his light blue hair._

_“You knew I’d be capable of it one day,” she declares triumphantly, taking a step away from him._

_The pain is overwhelming._

_“You told me I’d be self-sufficient. That I could be stable.”  
_

_This isn’t happening._

_“Look at me now!”  
_

_She laughs again, shaking her head._

_“Thanks to you, I’m free,” she says, grinning. “You gave me the courage to free myself. Free myself from you. From your warnings and your restrictions. You were holding me back from my great destiny.”_

_He felt like throwing up._

_“The paradise of happiness…pure joy…I used to think it was in your eyes. But I was wrong. Foolishly wrong. It’s beyond you, or me, or any other human.”  
_

_He shifts on his feet. “Please don’t do this,” he whispers._

_“It’s like a third eye. It’s not physical. It’s something greater, something more powerful than anything you can imagine.”  
_

_He slowly slides to his feet as his legs give out, his breath coming out in short gasps. The floor feels slippery._

_“Where’s your third eye, Jihyun?” She glares at him in disgust. “You don’t have one. Because you aren’t my sun, you aren’t my joy. You never were. You were always a fake, a poor imitation of the realest form of joy.”  
_

_She looks down at her hands, her bloodied thumbs, marveling at the color._

_“I could hear it calling to me for so long. I knew that this day would come. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”  
_

_She smiles a wide smile, one that he couldn’t see. “I must’ve known this was my future. I saw it all along. Yes. I always knew.”_

_She starts walking away, her footsteps growing distant. V cries out, “Wait!”, moving as if to stand._

_“Do you know what else I see, Jihyun?” she asks, malice flickering in her green eyes. “I see a future so grand that you could never understand it. A future without pain, without anything bad. You were the only thing holding me back from it, and that’s why I had to do this.”  
_

_She gazes at him almost longingly for a moment and then shakes her head. “I had to do this.”_

_She opens the apartment door. The sound of the storm is amplified as it howls in through the doorway. Her hair whips around her, and she’s cast into shadows as lightning flashes across the sky. She doesn’t look back. She slams the door behind her. V calls out her name, but she never responds._

_He collapses on the floor, sobbing. Blood trickles over his lips, and the copper taste stings his tongue. He moans on the floor, shaking, and lays there for a while, slowly realizing Rika wasn’t coming back._

_His mind races over all their moments together, her smiling at the sky, her soft hands holding his. The dark moments when the light left her eyes, replaced by something sinister. Was there more he could have done to stop it? To save her? There must have been a way to prevent this. He cries softly, wanting to turn back time._

_The pain became too much to bear. V shifts his hands, holding his two luxated eyeballs in one hand while reaching his left hand into his pocket, pulling out his phone. He fumbles with the dial pad for a bit before successfully accessing speed dial._

_He raises the phone to his ear, pain shooting through his body._

_After what seems like ages, someone picks up on the other line._

_“Jumin,” he breathes weakly.  
_

_“You’ve failed,” his best friend says, his voice sounding louder than it should.  
_

_“What?”  
_

_“You never deserved her,” Jumin says, his voice colder than V had ever heard it. “I always knew all along. You never deserved her.”  
_

_V drops the phone, shaking. He can’t find his eyes. They’re no longer attached to his head. There’s nothing but an empty void where his eyes were, now. Crimson blood flows from inside of them, covering his hands as he panics._

_“What did you do to her?” Jumin asks, his voice coming from all around V.  
_

_“I didn’t mean to,” V whimpers.  
_

_“She can never be saved now,” Jumin says, disgust lacing his voice._ _“What have you done?”_

_V curls up into the fetal position, sobbing._

_“What have you done?”  
_

_“I’m to blame,” he whispers in between sobs.  
_

_“What have you done?”  
_

_“I’m responsible.”  
_

_“What have you done?”  
_

_“I can still save her.”  
_

_“What have you done?”  
_

_“I’ll die trying.”  
_

_“Then you will most certainly die,” Jumin says somberly, and all at once, a great darkness overwhelms V, plunging him into nothingness._

 

* * *

V sits upright, bolting up from his sleeping bag. He’s covered in sweat and panting, his eyes aching in his sockets. 

A loud crash booms outside, startling him. 

He clutches his elbows, shivering, and realizes that he’s drenched. 

This isn’t sweat. It’s water. 

He fumbles in the tent, searching for his flashlight blindly. He turns it on, allowing him to see a little better. There’s a hole in the tent that allowed water to leak in. The storm outside rages on, and he sighs forlornly. He’s incredibly cold.

He searches for his duffle bag until he finds it, protected by a blanket. He zips it open, checking that the contents inside are still dry, and sighs with relief when he finds them crisp and water free. Thank God he bought a special waterproof bag in case anything happened. The probability of rain was only supposed to be 31% this weekend, but clearly the thunderstorm had come unexpecteldly. He zips the bag back up after shoving his phone and camera inside, then turns to put his boots back on before exiting the tent. 

His mind wanders back to the dream, but he pushes it aside, focusing on the task at hand.

He disassembles the tent with great ease, despite the inclement weather. He shoves it under a nearby bush, covering it up with leaves. The duffle bag is slung around his broad shoulders. He looks up into the sky, frowning as rain splattered against the trees. Up ahead, the silhouette of a strange building stood, darkened by the storm. A flash of lightning revealed its white walls and oddly colored roof. 

He clenched his jaw. His eyes started aching again. His hand squeezed against the strap of the large duffle bag. _You can do this. You have to do this._

_You promised._

Slowly, he started walking, feet sloshing in the mud as he continued his journey onward.


	4. Abandon All Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Through me you pass into the city of woe:  
> Through me you pass into eternal pain:  
> Through me among the people lost for aye.  
> Justice the founder of my fabric moved:  
> To rear me was the task of Power divine,  
> Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love.  
> Before me things create were none, save things  
> Eternal, and eternal I endure.  
> Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

At first, it feels like you’re spinning. 

You were enveloped by darkness and stillness for so long, but suddenly you find yourself in motion. You’re stuck in this weird state of vertigo, regaining and losing consciousness in random intervals. You don’t know how long you’ve been like this. 

The first feeling that seeps back into your body is pain. 

Your ankle is swollen and hurts like a motherfucker. The gash on your back aches, stinging as your body rocks with the motion of the car. And your hands, tied together at the wrist behind your back, have been crushed by the weight of your body resting on them. Pain prickles through your fingers. Circulation had been minimal, and your hands felt simultaneously numb and excruciatingly on fire. You moan, shifting your weight so that your hands could unfold, and felt blood rush through your veins. The pain grew now that you had feeling of your hands again, and you curse under you breath.

“So sleeping beauty is finally awake,” someone says beside you. 

Your eyes roll in your head as nausea washes over you. You slump against the cold window, staring blankly at the streaks of water running down its side. The storm rumbles threateningly all around you. You glance to your left.

Your unknown captor watches you from the side of his eye, his hands gripping the wheel tightly. His knuckles are white from the tension. He seems on edge, but now that you’re awake, his attention is focused on you.

You lick your parched lips, a pang of thirst shooting through your dry throat. “Are you calling me beautiful?” you mumble, your voice cracking. _Shit._ That wasn’t as biting as you wanted it to be. 

He gives you an odd look, frowning a bit, before retorting, “No. You look like you’ve been through hell.”

“Yeah, well,” you grunt, shifting again to try and give your hands more room to unfold, “some asshole decided to ruin my fucking night.”

He stays silent. 

You feel oddly disconnected. Normally, you wore a mask of forced cheerfulness. You didn’t curse like this in front of people. You were timid, gentle. You felt like a different person, but tonight had been relatively unique in a lot of ways. This hardened, tough persona you were fronting covered your deep and nearly overwhelming panic. It helped you keep your head level, and you needed to think clearly right now.

_Right. Think. What are my options?_

Escape was not one of them. Even if you managed to get the door open, your hands and feet were tied with zip ties, which were probably hard to break out of. So…assess the situation. Gain as much information as possible. 

You were MC. You had been taken from the apartment by the unknown man who had lured you there to begin with. He seemed off, like something was wrong. He mentioned something about this going against the plan. This was a spurred moment, a decision he had made out of haste. He said there wasn’t enough time. Time for what? Where was he taking you?

Good question.

“Where are we going?” you ask, sitting up a little. The headlights of the car pierced into the nearly incomprehensible darkness. You could tell you were on a road, but it was almost impossible to see more than that under the heavy sheets of rain. 

“To paradise,” he responds shortly, eyes glued to the road. 

“Okay, how about, like, the name of the street or something,” you retort, frustration rippling through you. Why did he keep talking about paradise? What the fuck did that mean? The rain pounds onto the roof of the car mercilessly.

He scoffs and doesn’t respond, furrowing his brows. “You can’t just _drive_ into paradise, so just fucking tell me where you’re taking me,” you demand angrily.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!!” he screams. His sudden outburst startles you. You flinch, leaning away from him. “I liked you better when you were passed out!” he snarls, eyes glaring at you wildly. “I’m sorry,” you say quickly, averting your eyes. 

“That’s better,” he growls, gripping the wheel. “Am I going to have to knock you out again?”

“No,” you whisper, staring at the floor of the car. You can see the scratches up your leg from your attempted escape. Your ankle looks really bad. Your forced bravado was gone. Now you just feel tired, in pain, and incredibly afraid.

“Good.”

You stare silently at the road as time goes by. He starts muttering to himself, eyes glazing over. You start feeling uneasy and shift in your seat. You glance at the clock, and it reads 7:22am. Had it really been that long?  
He hits his fist into his chest, muttering louder. You stare at him uncertainly. He starts hitting his chest repeatedly, grunting. The car swerves a little. 

“H-hey,” you say cautiously. 

He doesn’t hear you. He’s too busy mumbling to himself about something, and he keeps hitting his chest and rocking. Spit drools out of his mouth. His eyes are wide now. 

“Hey!” you call out, louder, but he ignores you. 

He looks like he’s having a bad reaction to something. The car swerves again, this time harder, but he straightens it on the road somehow. Your heartbeat quickens. What the fuck is going on?

He starts panting heavily, taking ragged breaths. Lightning flashes and startles him. The thunder that cracks a couple of seconds later also seems to affect him. He shudders as it rumbles around you. 

“Maybe we should pull over,” you say quickly, muscles tensed. 

“SHUT UP!!” he yells, but he’s not looking at you. “You’re gonna crash! Just pull over, okay?! Something’s wrong!” you plead.

“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP” he howls, hitting the wheel. The car sways. 

You flinch again, tears springing to your eyes. You look up in time to see the large yellow sign in front of the car with an arrow pointing to the left to indicate the road was curving. The car was going too fast. 

“LOOK OUT!” you shout, and his head snaps up. He sees the sign in time to swerve and slam on the brakes.

He pulled at the wheel too hard, and the car starts drifting. The wheels shudder as they struggle to regain traction. You clear the turn, but the car is losing control, swerving wildly. You scream at the top of your lungs.

All at once, there’s a loud BANG, and you’re thrown forward. The seatbelt catches your body, yanking you backwards and slamming you into the seat, and glass shards spray past you. Everything suddenly goes still, and you see stars as your vision darkens.

 

* * *

 

_Seven jumps out of his car, his hands shaking. V didn’t pick up his call, and he didn’t know what to do. He sprints towards the apartment complex from the parking lot, his equipment in tow. Before he reaches the elevator, he notices a bat lying on the ground on the sidewalk._

_He picks it up. It’s dented a bit at the ends, traces of blood still there._

_He breathes in sharply, turning towards the elevator._

_The doors swing open on the 14th floor. He rushes to the apartment, his heart racing. He sees the door wide open and swallows the lump in his throat. He turns on the lights, stepping into the room._

_There’s some blood on the floor and walls. It wasn’t enough to be a fatal wound, but it was enough to make his heart sink. He sets the bat down on the counter and pulls out his phone, calling Jumin, but the stoic director doesn’t answer._ “Fuck,” _he says angrily._

_He sets up his laptop and while it’s booting up, he inspects the scene._

_The window is shattered, but it’s beyond him how somebody managed to break into the 14th floor of an apartment complex. He curses the day he agreed to disable the alarm system in the apartment. It was one of Rika’s strange requests. A lot of what that woman did baffled him, but he trusted her just as he trusted V. It seemed like a lot of grief was coming out of that decision._

_He looks out of the open window. There were no clues on the walls as to how the assailant managed to reach the floor, so he gives up and ducks his head back inside._

_He goes to your bed next and finds your phone there, a little charred and completely dead. He opens the backing, discovering the burst battery, but the sim card is still somewhat intact. He pops it out, inspects it for a bit, and then takes it over to his computer, a grim look on his face._

_In a matter of moments, he’s searching through the data. He discovers the text you received._ You look so peaceful when you sleep, did you know that?  
_He clenches his jaw, anger bubbling up from inside of him. That fucker better not have hurt you, or else Seven will completely destroy him._ I’ll rip you apart, Unknown, if you dare touch my MC… _wait…my MC…what do I mean by that…? He shakes his head, clearing the emotions from his brain. He needed to focus._

_He turns to his next task. The video record was inaccessible from the computer at his home-someone had managed to sabotage his computer and he didn’t have time to fix it - but he could get the recorded files manually. This was the priority right now. He needs to find the car’s license number._

_Suddenly he realizes that in all his haste, he had forgotten to tell the RFA members what had happened._ Should I? _he wonders briefly._ Yes. I have to. This is more than just classified bullshit. MC’s life is in danger. I need all the help I can get. 

_He pulls out his phone while he opens the surveillance camera, fingers moving quickly across the screen._

> _707 has entered the chatroom._
> 
> **707:** SOS
> 
> **707:** Someone broke into Rika’s apartment
> 
> **707:** They took MC
> 
> **707:** High probability it’s the hacker
> 
> **707:** I’m at the apartment now
> 
> **707:** Trying to figure out who it was
> 
> **707:** Stay on high alert, all members at risk right now
> 
> **707:** V, Jumin, call me if you see this
> 
> **707:** …
> 
> **707:** I’m sorry
> 
> _707 has left the chatroom_

_Seven stares blankly at the phone, tears welling up in his eyes, but he wipes them away with the back of his wrist. He needs to work as quickly as possible._

_MC’s life depends on it._

 

* * *

A dull, aching pain pulls you out of unconsciousness. _There’s been a lot of that lately, hasn’t there?_ You hiss in pain, blinking rapidly in an attempt to adjust your eyes to the darkness. 

The car is crumpled up against a tree, steam rising lazily from the hood. Unknown is passed out, limply laying on top of the air bag that burst from his wheel. Yours never popped open. You can feel bruises welting across your chest and arms, and the seatbelt digs into your skin. Rain pours into the cracked open windshield, drenching you again. You had never really dried to begin with, though. 

Time was of the essence. You had to move fast. 

You look around wildly, searching for something to free your hands. _Glove compartment._  You pull your knee up, trying to trigger the handle with your kneecap. Miraculously, you do so, and it pops open. There’s a lot of jumbled, miscellaneous items contained inside, including…you almost cry with joy. There are _multiple_ knives strewn throughout the compartment. This guy sure loved his knives, and you thanked God for the blessing. 

You struggle against the seatbelt, squirming your fingers down and clawing at the lock until you manage to push the red button. The seatbelt releases, swiping up and over your shoulder with a hiss. You twist in your seat, but you’re not close enough. You push back with your legs, crying out as your ankle throbs from the effort. Finally, you manage to grasp a knife, and you struggle to hold it in your wet hands. 

You wiggle it into your right hand, grasping it firmly. You try to slice it against the zip tie, but you miss and stab yourself in the arm. Blood wells up from the wound and you yelp in pain, whimpering. _Focus._ You shiver and try again, trembling slightly. This time you manage to slip the knife through the zip tie and hold it taught, pushing it against the thin plastic with all your might, doing your best to slice it correctly. 

The plastic gives way, freeing your hands.

You gasp and drop the knife, pulling your arms forward. Your shoulders pop, readjusting, and you rub your sore wrists. You feel incredibly weak all of a sudden, but you pull yourself together. You need to hurry. 

You grab the knife again and reach down to your ankles. The zip tie presses uncomfortably into your swollen ankle. Jostling it sends pain shooting up your leg, and you start sobbing from the pain, but you press onwards, determination motivating you to slice faster. The plastic pops open and you gasp in relief as the pressure against your ankle lifts.

You turn to Uknown, hesitating. He has a phone, right? He texted you before kidnapping you, after all. You poke his arm, but he doesn’t respond. 

You reach into his back pockets, digging around, but you don’t find a phone. You curse, looking around the car, and spot the little well between the two front seats. You open it and find a black android sitting in the well. “Oh fuck! Thank God!” you exclaim, grabbing at it. 

You click the side button, and the phone prompts you for a fingerprint to unlock it. You pause, biting your lip. You reach over and pick up his arm, setting his limp thumb against the home button. The phone unlocks and you cry out in joy, dropping his arm. 

You notice that the battery reads 3% and curse again. Your fucking luck today is astronomical. You desperately try to remember Seven’s number. Your head hurts. You don’t know why, but you have it memorized by now, at least you think you do? You dial the number and press it to your ear, panting. _Why didn’t I call the police…?_ you wonder, but before you can figure it out, Seven answers. 

“Who the fuck is this?” he growls, sounding tense. 

“Seven,” you gasp, throat cracking. You remembered you were still thirsty as hell. 

“MC!” he shouts, and you wince at the volume. “Oh my God!! I’m so glad I picked up!! Are you okay??”

You pant into the phone, excitement running through your veins. You didn’t expect this to work. Hope flares up inside of you. “Help me,” you beg, rubbing your hurt wrist. “Please.”

“Where are you? Are you safe?” he asks rapidly. You can hear typing on the other end. 

“No,” you manage to say. Your tongue feels like cotton. Your neck starts hurting and you rub it, staring at the broken glass on the dashboard in front of you. The rain lightens a bit, thunder rumbling in the distance. 

“Where are you, MC?” he asks again, desperation leaking through. “Paradise,” you say, without thinking. You hear him pause on the other line. “What?”

You shake your head, stuttering. “N-no, sorry, that’s…where he said he was…taking me…” you mumble, eyes darting around. 

“Okay,” Seven said. “But…where are you now? Describe your surroundings.”

You stare out of the car, squinting into the forest around you. You can vaguely see the outline of city lights, far in the distance. “I don’t know. Somewhere in the forest. I can see…lights…in the distance. Far away.” You whimper in pain, trying to shift weight off of your hurt ankle. 

“Did he hurt you?” Seven asks suddenly. You his voice get lower. You stare blankly at your foot. The injuries on your body all hurt so badly. You wished you were home, safe and sound, away from Rika’s apartment, away from all this pain. 

“Yeah,” you sigh, gripping your sides. You hear him curse on the other end. You rub your forehead, realizing that your head was hurting really badly. When you pull your hand down, it’s covered in blood. “Seven, I think I’m bleeding,” you whisper, staring at the red substance. 

He’s silent at first, and then, in a choked voice, he says, “I’m looking up your location. Stay on the line. It’ll be ok, MC, I promise-”

Suddenly, his voice cuts off. You look at the phone screen dubiously. It’s black. Dead.

“NO!” you scream, crying. Did he get your coordinates? You curse to yourself again, gripping the phone, and sit there for a little while, trying to pull yourself together.

You needed to find help.

You tug against the car door handle, but it’s a little jammed. With your good foot, you manage to kick it open, and it scrapes against the bushes forcing it closed. You stumble out of the car, nearly falling on the ground before regaining your footing. 

Your head hurts like hell. 

You shove the phone into your back pocket, looking around you. The road was to your left, and dense forest to your right. The rain was lighter now, but still steady as ever. 

Which way should you go?

You stare at both directions the road went. It was subtle, but you felt like it was at an incline. You slowly start to realize that you were traveling up a hill or mountain. It must be the city you saw off in the distance. Below you. 

So you should go down, right?

You squint ahead of you, trying to make out the shapes in the darkness. You think you see…lights? Nestled into the black abyss, tiny dots in the far-off distance. A flash of lightning reveals a building slightly above you, and pretty far away, but definitely there. It looks like the road eventually leads there. You stare back down the opposite side of the road. You didn’t know how far you had come, or how far the town was. That building would be your safest bet. 

You hear someone shifting in the car. Your heart leaps into your throat, and you quickly limp forward, heading for the building. 

 

* * *

 

_Seven curses profusely. “Fuck! Shit! Goddamnit! Fucking shitty ass goddamn phone, motherfucking-!!”_

_He nearly threw his phone to the ground, shouting at nothing. He thought it was his phone that had dropped the connection, but when he dials the number that had called him, it went straight to a robotic-voiced voicemail. He realizes that your phone had died._

_He turns to his laptop, praying that it had managed to track the location._

_The GPS tracker displayed on his screen was empty. It had only gotten the first bit of coordinates, not even a complete one. You were still in the country, that was for sure, but he had no idea where._

_“FUCK!” he shouts, slamming his fist on the table.  
_

_He was so close._

_He covers his face with his hands, elbows resting on the counter. He wanted to pull his hair out for being so incompetent._

_But there wasn’t time for self pity. He still had a way to track you._

_He had pulled video from several cameras, including the ones hidden outside. He started compiling them, searching through for the moment you had been taken. He had paused right when you had been dragged back to the car, and he turned his attention back to the video feed._

_The car backed out of its parking spot and sped out of the complex, heading north on the street._ I need to find traffic cameras or red light cameras, _he thinks to himself, rubbing his temple._ I can track the car’s movements that way for a while. _The car’s license plate was too blurry on the apartment camera, and he couldn’t zoom in clearly on a recording like he could with live feed. He curses again, frustrated._

_Suddenly, his phone lights up, Jumin Han’s name displayed on the screen._

Oh, thank fucking Christ, _he thinks, answering immediately._

“Jumin”, _he breathes._

“Tell me everything,” _Jumin demands, his voice tense._

 

* * *

You kept glancing behind you, but the unknown man hadn’t left the car. You weren’t sure if he was awake yet. 

It takes a long, long time, especially with your injuries, but you _finally_ reach the building. It’s…really odd-looking. It has pure white walls, and a light colored roof. It oddly looks like a sort of temple, despite its modern design. The light pours out brightly from the window, like a lighthouse leading lost sailors to safety from the tempestuous sea. 

You wheeze, exhausted from the trek. You limp heavily up to the door, almost collapsing against its solid surface. 

Your hands slide down the smooth wood, a sob escaping your lips. You lift the brass handle, knocking with all your might. “Help,” you croak, but your voice is too weak to project over the storm. You keep knocking, despair overtaking you. 

Suddenly, the door lurches inwards, and you collapse on the floor, winded. A voice gasps in surprise. 

You pant on the floor, shaking. Strong hands reach down and pick you up. 

“Thomas!” the figure calls behind them. “Come help! We have an injured visitor!”

You’re too tired to care as the stranger carries you into a large living room and lays you down on the couch. The brightness of the room almost blinds you, but your eyes gradually adjust. 

A burly man with a kind-looking face is staring down at you, brushing your hair back. His dark grey eyes seem concerned. Another more jittery-looking man rushes to his side, his light brown hair dishevelled. He looks lost, unsure of what he’s doing. “Andrew…?” he asks the man uncertainly, staring at you. 

“Get Levi,” Andrew says sternly. Thomas nearly stumbles in his haste as he runs out of the room. 

You feel like passing out as you shiver from the cold. The pain is so great, but your relief is even greater. It washes over you like a flood. You feel like you can finally rest, and you crave sleep like no other. Your throat burns. Well, almost no other. “Water,” you beg, licking your dry lips. 

Andrew nods and leaves the room for a few moments. The furniture looks nice, but you notice it’s mostly bare, like a model room meant for show. Your mind wanders, and you feel like you’re fading away when Andrew returns with a large glass of water and a blanket.

You sit upright a bit, grabbing the water and drinking greedily. It spills onto your chest, but you barely notice. You’re drenched already. He covers you in the blanket, and you immediately feel warmth seep into your bones. 

“Where…where am I?” you ask, feeling your strength slip away as the man cradles you. 

He smiles down at you, an odd look in his eye. “You’re safe now, dear. You’re in the safest place in the world…

Some people even call this place paradise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *edited and changed the names of these respective characters: Elijah > Levi, Abel > Andrew, Joseph > Thomas.


	5. Judas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Jesus answered them, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?’ Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.
> 
> -John 6:70-71
> 
> TW for abuse and violence in this chapter.

 

_“Just look into my eyes, Rika.”  
_

_It always starts the same._

_She’s in his embrace again, sobs racking her petite frame. Shakily, she looks up at him, her green eyes reflecting a mixture of wonder and fear. Her pupils are dilated this time, open and searching for light._

_“Whenever you feel afraid, look into my eyes.”  
_

_He already knows what’s going to happen. Dread fills him, but he cannot stop it. He cannot ever stop it._

_Her body trembles as she breathes shakily. Her gossamer lips part, blurring into words that he has learned to dread and has come to hate._

_“Save me.” They slip between her teeth like the whistle of a train, shooting forward smoothly without a track to guide them.  
_

_Don’t ask me to._

_“I will. I’ll save you,” he chokes, fighting to keep tongue from moving. It wags like a snake, betraying him as it writhes between his gums.  
_

_Her smile is as a blooming rose, beautiful in its ruddiness, dangerous in its delicacy. He is afraid to touch her because he knows she has thorns, but he cannot help himself. She draws him in, holding him quickly, her hands tracing patterns up his back.As if it were a signal, his body reacts to her touch, shuddering. His lips lose themselves in the sea of her golden hair. She smells like sweetness, something impossible to place but powerful in its potency._

_He stares down on the floor. Maybe this time it will be different._

_She chuckles softly, rocking back and forth, and gradually she begins to sob. The sobs are slow, drawn out, growing into a crescendo of wails. Her whole body tenses with the effort. He clutches onto her, desperate to stop it. Please. Stop it. Can anything ever stop it? She devolves into making guttural noises, recovering from the panic attack without much grace.  
_ _There’s nothing particularly graceful nor beautiful about these things. There was never meant to be. This is ugly, raw, and wholly truthful. She is bare before him, eyes squeezed shut and teeth bared._

_“Please,” she sobs. “Please. Promise me.”  
_

_“Don’t make me,” he whispers, frozen.  
_

_“What?” She pulls away from him, eyes confuse and hurt as she stares intently at him.  
_

_“I......” His mouth forms words, but he doesn’t have the strength to make noise. He was so close. The harder he tried to say it, the less he was able to move. His limbs felt sluggish, and his lips felt like they were covered in hardening wax, burning solid weight sealing them closed._

_“Don’t you love me?” The hurt in her eyes stabs him through his heart, squeezing his insides with guilt.  
_

_I do. I do. I do._

_“Promise me, V,” she repeats indignantly, eyes tearing up again. “I don’t think I can go on without you. Do you want me to die?”  
_

_Please. Don’t._

_He starts crying, shaking his head in frustration._

_“I... promise...Rika......”  
_

_Her face changes. He knows it’s coming. He flinches, sensing what is about to come._

_Her eyes darken, shadows dancing in their emerald depths. Despite her small frame, despite her delicate features, despite everything, she becomes the most malicious force in the room. Her smile is like venom. That was all she needed to hear._

_“LIAR!” she declares triumphantly.  
_

_She grabs an unmarked jug sitting on the counter next to them, flinging it open and thrusting the liquid straight into his face. His eyes are wide with shock. He can’t move to shield his face; it’s like his hands are glued to his side, exposing him to her without a chance of escape._

_The liquid burns upon impact, stinging his flesh. His screams are shrill, laced with pain. His hands fly to his face instantly, but this proves to be a mistake. Soon his hands are burning too, blistering from the strong chemicals. He stumbles backwards, falling to the floor. His eyes are on fire._

_He spins around, scrambling to get up and race towards the sink. She’s behind him in an instant, kicking him square in the back and causing him to fall back onto his chest. Her ferocity catches him by surprise, and he lays on the floor, face buried in his arms as his body shakes. The pain is indescribable, unbearable._

_She sits on his back, straddling him, and presses her hands into his back. “Rika,” he calls to her half-heartedly. “Rika...call...call an ambulance, I can’t...my eyes...” He pants with shaky breaths, saliva dripping from his mouth as he moans. She leans down, whispering in his ear._

_“Do you still love me?”_

_“...”  
_

_“Answer me, Jihyun.”  
_

_God fucking dammit. God dammit._

_“I...”  
_

_He doesn’t want this. He wishes he could hate her. He wishes he could end it all._

_“I do...”  
_

_Fuck._

_Through half-lidded eyes, she stares down at him, smiling slowly. “Let me see you.”_

_He rolls over gradually, wincing in pain. She gets up onto her knees to give him room to roll over before returning to a sitting position, straddling his hips. His face is starting to blister._

_She moves his hands away from his face, staring down at his burning body. “Rika,” he croaks. She’s silent, staring at him in wonder._

_“Stop it, Rika,” he begs.  
_

_“Am I still beautiful, V?” she murmurs, tilting her head.  
_

_“I can’t see you,” he cries, tears streaming from his bloodied eyes.  
_

_“Are we still soul mates?”  
_

_“Please don’t,” he whimpers.  
_

_“Is this what you want?”  
_

_“NO!” he screams, struggling to get her off of him. She slams her hands onto his chest, forcing him back onto the ground. She squeezes her legs around him, staring down at him with an odd look in her eyes. “I like you like this, V,” she hisses. “You’re finally honest with me.”  
_

_A burst of strength rips through him as he pushes her off of him force fully. She flies backwards, landing on her back with a loud thump. The wind is knocked out of her, and she gasps in pain, wincing._

_The pain is indescribable. He gasps in pain, clawing at his face._

_“Fine,” she shouts, struggling to her feet. “I don’t care about you anymore. I’m finally free from you.”  
_

_He tries to drag himself towards the sink again, turning from her. She follows him as he slowly moves, yelling angrily._

_“Your fucking eyes were nothing but a trap meant to hold me back! I would’ve never realized my full potential if it were up to you! All you want to do is control me and stop me from saving everybody because you can’t understand my destiny!”  
_

_He struggles to stand, hands reaching for the faucet desperately._

_“I see the real eyes of heaven, V. They’re so much more beautiful than yours, and they have blessed me with real sight. Something you could never understand.”  
_

_He switches the water on, thrusting his face under the cool yet sharply painful stream of water._

_But the water doesn’t drown out her voice. It’s clear as ever, ringing in his ears._

_“You never deserved to look at me with those disgusting eyes. This is your proper punishment for all you’ve stopped me from doing. But your reward...your reward...you gave me enough confidence to realize my potential at least. So your reward is an invitation.”  
_

_Her lips caress his ear, voice sickly sweet as her hands grip his shoulders._

_“Come with me. I can show you a paradise you can’t even begin to imagine.”  
_

_No._

_He shrugs her off, panting. “No, Rika. it’s not right.”_

_“Even now, after all my mercy, you refuse me?”  
_

_He can feel her hatred pricking at his back._

_“Don’t ever say I didn’t offer you anything. You’re pathetic.”_

_He can feel her growing distant, walking away from him steadily._

_Come back. Please._

_No...stay away...no..._

_“You’ll know where to find me, V,” she calls out to him. “Even if you change your mind...I’ll forgive you. That’s how much mercy I have. Even if you don’t deserve it.”  
_

_“Rika,” he gurgles, raising his head to try and call out to her._

_“Let’s meet again in paradise...” she says, her voice singsong.  
_

_All at once, a fluttering sound fills the air. Wings flap around the room, and suddenly it becomes silent._

_His vision is blurry as he leans against the counter with trembling arms. He sees a dark feather land on the counter, drifting lazily down. The door across the room is thrown ajar. A light rain pitters outside, thunder rumbling in the far-off distance. He wheezes, squinting at the door, trying to find traces of her still left in his apartment. He feels numb. The sink overflows with water, pulsing through his burning fingers._

_Suddenly, a hand grabs his hair and twists, causing pain to shoot through his scalp. Strong arms push him down into the sink, engulfing him in water. He gasps involuntarily and chokes on cold water, bubbles popping out of his scarred nose and mouth. His body jerks, trying to move upwards, but the overbearing force exerts itself on him, keeping him down._

_He hears a voice pierce through the water clear as day._

_“What did you do to her?”  
_

_Jumin._

_Stop it. Jumin-_

_“This is your fault.”  
_

_He knows. Just please-_

_“What have you done?”  
_

_His mouth struggles for air, twisting and struggling against the water. He starts to weaken, the water in his lungs sloshing inside his chest. His face still burns, but he feels so cold..._

_“You deserve this.”  
_

_Yes. He knows._

_“I won’t ever forgive you.”  
_

_He knew all along..._

_“She should have lived. She deserved to live. And you...”  
_

_He deserves death._

_A wave of water crashes down on him, washing him away from the apartment and plunging him into an endless depth of blackness. He spins wildly in the waves, hands reaching up, mouth open in desperation. He can’t breathe- he coughs wildly, but without air, his lungs only fill with more water. He thrashes, but to no avail. Slowly, he grows limp, drifting in the unending abyss, despair seeming to consume in entirely._

_And then there is nothing but that blackness, consuming him._

____————————————___  
_

V bolts upright, panting. He’s covered in sweat again. At least, he thinks it’s sweat. 

 _Another nightmare,_ he thinks. He’s exhausted.

He glances around the dark room, confused for a moment. A thick blanket is wrapped around him, and he realizes how cold he is.

He’s drenched in water. Thunder rumbles outside, and the soft sound of rain slowly drifts into reality. 

“Something troubles you,” a voice says, piercing through the darkness. 

V has trouble seeing him in the low light. He turns towards the voice, frowning. 

“...you think so?” he asks calmly, wiping his forehead with the back of his wrist.

“Your dreams are troubled, at least,” the figure says kindly. “I guess you really do have regret in your heart.”

V says nothing in response, gripping the blanket tighter. He stares down at the floor silently.

The figure steps forward into the soft lamp light, becoming less abstract and more defined to V’s damaged eyes. He can vaguely make out folded clothes in the man’s hands. 

“Here. I have fetched dry clothes for you,” Andrew says somberly. “You’re going to catch a cold if you stay drenched as you are.”

V pauses before standing, blanket still wrapped around his shoulders. “I...I can’t thank you enough for your hospitality, even at this hour.”

Andrew nods. “We are called to help those in need, regardless of the inconvenience.”

V takes the clothes from the man. Andrew stares into his face curiously. V shies away from him, brushing his dark brown bangs down to partially cover his right eye. 

“I don’t trust him,” another voice interrupts, hostility dripping from his words.

V turns to see a man with white hair leaning against the wall, arms crossed and foot angled to rest against the trimming. At first, V didn’t recognize him. His face echoed something familiar. Then he noticed the red tips on the ends of his locks of white hair. Confusion pricks at him. He couldn’t say why, but...he kind of...looked like Luciel -

Suddenly, hock ripples through V as he recognizes the white-haired man, but he masks his expression at once, recovering quickly.

The unknown man glares at him, eyes narrowing with suspicion. 

 _What...what the fuck is he doing here...?_ V wonders, startled. 

“Saul,” Andrew says coldly, his usual friendliness completely gone. “It’s Paul now,” the man snaps back, balling his hands into fists. “I’ve earned my name, and you better acknowledge it.”

Andrew doesn’t respond, but frowns disapprovingly. “It doesn’t matter if you trust him. Our Savior has decided to take him in, and you know what that means.”

V parts his lips, his breath catching. Savior...was that...her?

“I don’t need reminding,” Paul snorts. “I’m bound to obey Savior’s orders just like everyone else. I just don’t have a good feeling about him.”

“He means no harm,” Andrew says flatly, taking a step towards V almost as if to stand between them. “I’m sure he’d want us to believe that,” Paul says darkly before stepping forward. He shoots one last glare at V before turning on his heel and stomping away. 

Andrew sighs, visibly relaxing. “Sorry about that. Saul is...always on edge, it seems.”

“I thought his name was Paul,” V says, glancing over at Andrew. He’s still holding the folded clothes, still soft in his hands. He aches to put them on and get out of the cold, wet clothes that cling to his body. Andrew grunts, frowning. “I think he needs more temperance before earning his full name.”

V stares at him in confusion, prompting Andrew to smile. “Right. Well, being new, you’ll learn our ways pretty quickly.”

 _What the fuck happened to him here?_ Dread fills V’s chest. _He wasn’t supposed to be here. What has she done to him...?_

Andrew places his hand against V’s back, directing him towards a bathroom where he can change. “Let me know when you’re done, and I’ll see you to your room...”

He pauses, frowning again. “Forgive me. What was your name again?”

“John,” V says. 

“Right. John.”

Andrew grins at him, visibly pleased. “What?” V asks warily. “Ah, nothing,” Andrew says quickly, stepping back as V stood in the bathroom doorway. “It’s just...an interesting coincidence. Think nothing of it, for now.”

V gives him an odd look before stepping inside the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

“John,” Andrew breathes, bringing his hand up to his face to scratch his stubble. “Perhaps this is a sign.”

V stares into the mirror, letting the clothes crumple onto the counter. The thick blanket falls off of his shoulders, slumping onto the floor softly. He looks pale and rather sickly. He’s gotten thinner over the past few months, and his skin sits tautly on his bones. His cheeks are sharp, cheeks shallow. His brown eyes look incredibly tired. A shiver ripples through him.

Right. He needed to change.

He pulls his shirt over his head, pausing to look at his torso in the mirror. He traces the scars absent-mindedly, flicking his brown hair away from his face. Maybe he should’ve gotten stronger before coming here. 

_No. This needs to be done. He had to know._

He clenches his jaw, placing his shirt across the bathroom counter.

_Luciel...I’m sorry...I’m the reason this happened. I can’t believe this but...I’ll find a way to save him..._

This was his responsibility. He couldn’t ask anybody else to do this for him. It was his fault, and he had to find a way to set things right.

He _would_ set things right. 

He stares at his reflection, placing his hand against the cold mirror and leaning his forehead on the cool glass. 

_I’ve come for you, Rika._

_I’ll save you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (( // this took forever because I kept editing it OTL I hope you guys enjoy!! I'm conflicted about it but it's time to move on haha ))


	6. Limbo: Pt. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was a novice in this state,  
> When I saw hither come a Mighty One,  
> With sign of victory incoronate.  
> Hence he drew forth the shade of the First Parent,  
> And that of his son Abel, and of Noah,  
> Of Moses the lawgiver, and the obedient  
> Abraham, patriarch, and David, king,  
> Israel with his father and his children,  
> And Rachel, for whose sake he did so much,  
> And others many, and he made them blessed;  
> And thou must know, that earlier than these  
> Never were any human spirits saved.

 

_“Some people even call this place paradise.”_

The words pound in your head. You keep fading in and out. You’re absolutely exhausted to your core, but you feel uneasy. Something’s not right. 

Paradise. Was this paradise?

You felt incredibly heavy, yet light as a feather at the same time. It feels like you’re floating in warm air. Something buzzes through you, humming in low tones. This feels great but...so... _wrong_ _,_ somehow. It feels like you stay that way for a long. long time.

Finally, you break out of the odd stupor and open your eyes, squinting in the bright morning light, feeling incredibly groggy.

You’re laying on a bed cot in a plain room, the curtains half-drawn across the large window on the right wall. Sunlight beams into the room softly. Your eyes blur as they adjust to the light. 

As your body slowly wakes up, you become acutely aware of the pain. 

You moan, raising your hand to your head, pressing your fingertips gingerly to your temple. Soft cloth meets your touch, and you grunt, surprised. There’s a bandage across your forehead, wrapped around your entire skull. Your head throbs underneath it. The cut from the car crash...

You sit up in bed, realizing that your left foot was raised onto a pillow. A pack of ice was strapped to it, pressing down on your throbbing ankle. Awkwardly, you slip out of bed, pressing your feet onto the cold ground gently. Your head spins, so you take a moment to get your bearings. After a few moments, your head clears, and you notice that there’s a pair of crutches next to your bed. You press your lips together and grab them, slowly making your way to the bathroom on the other side of the room. 

You freeze and stare at yourself in the mirror, shocked.

There’s a bandage wrapped around your left wrist where you stabbed yourself. Underneath your shirt, you feel another cloth bandage pull against your shoulder, strapped across your back to protect the gash you’d gotten from the metal fence.

Wait. Your shirt...

* * *

 

Your clothing has changed. You are no longer wearing your pajamas. Instead, you are dressed in a thick, white collared shirt with jean pants. You _also_ aren’t wearing a bra. Where are your old clothes...and who had changed you?!

You shift onto your right foot, putting the crutches aside. You carefully take the white shirt off, throwing it to the side. You stare at your naked torso in disbelief. 

Horrible purple and blue bruises ripple diagonally across your chest from the seat belt. One is dappled across your right breast, and it feels like it hurts more on the sensitive area. You raise your arm and notice the dark bruises scattered across your ribs from when you were kicked. Slowly, you turn, and examine the bandage stretched across your back. There’s another large bruise on your back from when you were hit with your own bat. And the bruises decorating your neck from when you were nearly choked to death make your throat feel tighter.

“Holy shit,” you whisper in disbelief. It hurts to speak. Your body seems to ache even more as you take in your injuries silently. 

Your feet hurt like hell, too. It feels like you’d walked for miles. 

Actually...you glance down at your feet and notice that they’re clean as a whistle. So is your whole body, in fact. You should be covered in dirt and grime from the absolute hell you went through, but...

Someone had washed you, too. 

You recall the two men you had met when you first collapsed in this strange place and shudder. You feel _violated._

But, at the same time, your injuries have been treated, and even though you were beaten all to hell, you feel rather clean and rested. Someone has taken good care of you while you rested, that was certain. Though you feel uneasy about being undressed and bathed while unconscious, you settle into an uneasy satisfaction, hoping that you’d finally caught a break. 

Something’s still bothering you, though. You can’t quite put your finger on it. Your head throbs. 

You feel pressure build suddenly in your abdomen. You have to pee. After shuffling awkwardly to the toilet, you plop down  on the toilet, putting your head in your hands as you relieved yourself. You sit there silently for a few moments, and then you slowly begin to shake. Soft sobs escape your lips as the gravity of the situation begins to sink in.

You are so incredibly relieved that your own personal hell had ended. 

Your sobs turn into a broken laughter as your body shudders. Panic rises into your throat as you rock back and forth, breathing in sharply. 

_It’s okay. It’s okay. Don’t panic. It’s over now._

You bring yourself back down gradually, gripping your head tightly, nails digging into your scalp. You stay hunched over for a few more moments before straightening up, rubbing your eyes. You wipe yourself and stand, shuffling back to the sink to wash your hands. Your right boob feels sore again, and you stare at your bruises blankly.

Any moment now, Seven was going to show up and take you back home. 

_Right? He had had enough time to trace you. He better have_. 

Even if he didn’t, these kind people would surely take you home... 

You sniffle, take some tissues from the counter, and then blow your nose. After throwing them away, you put your shirt back on, careful not to agitate your wounds. 

You tug at the ice pack strapped to your leg, unraveling the bandages and placing it on the counter. It feels pretty cold, as if someone has recently put it on you. 

Using the crutches, you make your way back into the room and look around. 

There’s a photograph of a flower sitting on the night stand next to the bed. It looks oddly familiar, but you can’t remember why. It reminds you of somebody, you think.

Almost everything in the room is white, even the furniture. While it feels very pristine and clean, it also feels rather...empty.   
You had enough of this. It was time to let your caretakers know you had awoken. 

You limp over to the door, resting the crutch against your body as you turn the knob.

 

* * *

 

> _\- 707 has entered the chatroom. -_
> 
> _**Yoosung ★:** SEVEN!!! DDD:_
> 
> _**Zen:** Seven! Thank god ;;_
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** Luciel, we need an explanation. _
> 
> _**707:** is jumin here?_
> 
> _**Zen:** don’t avoid the question, dude. we’re worried sick right now!_
> 
> _**Yoosung ★:**_   _is MC really in trouble? :(((_
> 
> _**707:** jaehee, do you know where jumin is right now_
> 
> _**Zen:**...wow. ok._
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** Mr. Han didn’t go home until late last night after he visited you. I think he’s still there. He didn’t come into the office today and he won’t pick up my calls. _
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** I really think you need to explain to us what’s going on. You keep saying there’s no time, yet so much time has passed and you’ve made no progress on finding her. _
> 
> _**707:**..._
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** Give us something, anything. _
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** I’m worried sick but I have to sit in this god-forsaken office to take care of things until Mr.Han devises a plan. _
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** I’d really fucking appreciate a little bit of clarity right now. Please and thank you._
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  ...oh my god...Jaehee curisng...  
> _
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  it feels so wrong??  
> _
> 
> _**Zen:** fuck. you really know things are bad when even Jaehee curses..._
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** I have no fucks left to give. Explain, Luciel. Now. _
> 
> _**707:** look, I still don’t have time for this shit._
> 
> _**707:**  i thought jumin would explain to you all what’s happening while i focus on finding MC, but instead he wasted my fucking time by getting his men involved in this shit. _
> 
> _**707:** it didn’t need to get this complicated. v still won’t answer and now jumin isn’t listening to me or answering my calls. _
> 
> _**707:** if any of you see him on, let him know that i finally figured out where the car went. im searching the area now via satellite. _
> 
> _**707:** she’s closer than we thought. just tell him that. _
> 
> _**707:** and stop calling me._
> 
> _\- 707 has left the chatroom -_
> 
> _**Zen: don’t just run away!** _
> 
> _**Zen:** goddammit, that’s not fair!!! argh, that douche!_
> 
> _**Zen:** I can’t stand not knowing what happened to her! Why can’t we be a part of the search, too?!_
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  he probably thinks we’re useless  
> _
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  i feel pretty useless  
> _
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** It’s more likely that he sees us as liabilities. _
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** if we get involved, it will only make matters more complicated._
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** Regardless, we have a right to know what happened to her, and what the situation is. Luciel is being selfish. _
> 
> _**Zen:** god!! I can’t stand this_
> 
> _**Zen:** that jerk trustfund kid got in the way of seven somehow and now we’re left in the dark_
> 
> _**Zen:** I don’t even want to think about what MC is going through right now_
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  if shes still alive  
> _
> 
> _**Zen:**...shut up._
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  not even seven knows if shes alive  
> _
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  doesnt anyone find it suspicious that V isnt answering anybody?  
> _
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  this is just like what happened with Rika  
> _
> 
> _**Zen:** stop it_
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  we leave them in their hands and they just disappear without a trace  
> _
> 
> _**Yoosung ★:**_   _and we don’t even get a body_
> 
> _**Zen:** I SAID FUCKING STOP IT!!!!_
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : **..._
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  we just get a bullshit story  
> _
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  and a bullshit funeral  
> _
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  im tired of burying people  
> _
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  something is wrong with the rfa  
> _
> 
> __**Yoosung ★:**_  i dont want to do this anymore  
> _
> 
> _- _Yoosung ★ has left the chatroom. -__
> 
> __**Zen:**...shit._ _
> 
> __**Zen:** I can’t sit here doing nothing!!!_ _
> 
> __**Zen:** god, I need a cig..._ _
> 
> __**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** I wouldn’t advise that. Smoking is bad for your health and won’t ease any of this. _ _
> 
> __**Zen:** to hell with my health!_ _
> 
> _**Zen:**..._
> 
> _**Zen:** Jaehee. I think I’m gonna go over to Yoosung’s_
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** Ah._
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** Yeah. _
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** That...might be in his best interest. _
> 
> _**Zen:** will you be okay on your own?_
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_ : ** I honestly don’t know. _
> 
> _**Jaehee _ **Kang**_   **I’m...I’m managing. For now._
> 
> _**Zen:** okay. if I can calm him down I think we’re gonna head over there_
> 
> _**Zen:** sorry, but none of us should be alone right now_
> 
> _**Jaehee Kang:** No, you’re right. _
> 
> _**Jaehee Kang:** Besides, the C&R building is well secured. you’re probably safer here._
> 
> _**Zen:** yeah. _
> 
> _**Zen:** okay. take care. I’ll text you when we’re on our way_
> 
> _**Jaehee Kang:** Good luck._
> 
> _\- Zen has left the chatroom. -_
> 
> _\- Jaehee has left the chatroom. -_

 

* * *

 

The hallway outside your room is long and uniform.

You glance to the placard outside your door. It reads _103 A._

You slowly limp down the hallway, passing other doors. When you peek through the window on the doors, you find each room identical in both their design and emptiness. There isn’t a soul to be found.

You frown, feeling that familiar uneasiness creep its way back into your gut. Nervously, you peek around the corner, and someone suddenly bumps into you, dropping something that clatters onto the ground loudly.

They yelp in surprise, jumping backwards. You inhale sharply, almost losing your balance on your crutches, and take a step back as well. You both stare at each other, startled. 

A short red-haired woman is staring at you in bewilderment. She’s wearing a stark white dress, her hair tied back hastily and sticking out in places. Her green eyes and dappled freckles catch your attention. “Oh!” she exclaims, relaxing suddenly. “You’re awake.” She brushes her fingers across her round cheeks to tuck a waft of red hair behind her ear. “I-I’m sorry. I was trying to hurry back to check on you. Did I hurt you?”

“Uh,” you say hoarsely, your throat tensing with the effort of speaking. It was hard to speak after being choked so hard. You clear your throat, a little embarrassed. “Where-Where am I?”

“Ah, well, we go by a lot of names,” she said, bending down to pick the tray she’d dropped. You notice her grab a needle full of odd-colored liquid and attempt to tuck it in her dress pocket. “What’s that?” you ask pointedly, staring at her. “O-oh, uh, m-medicine,” she stutters. “F-f-for the pain. Of course.”

Her nervousness concerns you. Immediately, you feel suspicious, but her bashful and rather clumsy nature tempt you to trust her. She doesn’t seem the type to be malicious, but she is definitely hiding something. “A-anyway, like I was saying, we go by many names, depending on who you ask. We are Mint Eye, the New Order, and some people even call this place paradise.” She smiles at that proudly, but the phrase almost knocks you over.

_Paradise._

It hits you in a wave. _Now_  you remember what’s been bugging you. The place that the unknown man was raving on about - the man who took you inside, giving you shelter and warmth, had said it too - paradise - 

This place is it. _This_ is where you were meant to be taken all along. 

“Well, so, I’m glad you’re awake. Everyone’s so curious about you! You look like you’ve been through a lot, aha. We’re very eager to learn more about you.”

You can’t breathe. 

The woman notices your sudden change in expression and frowns worriedly. “A-are you ok?” You grip your crutches tightly, knuckles turning white from the effort. You struggle to calm yourself, breath hitching. “S-sorry I...feel really weak, all of a sudden,” you mutter, looking around in fear. This place doesn’t look threatening or dangerous, but the fact that you had dragged yourself straight to the bowels of the place that hacker had wanted you to be...it gives you a sour taste in your mouth. 

Speaking of the hacker man...where was he? 

The woman walks over to you, offering to help you straighten yourself. You shake your head, regaining your composure, and smile weakly. “Ah..what’s your name?” you ask, changing the subject quickly. “Oh, me? I’m Ruth. How about you?” You hesitate for a moment, darting your eyes away. “...J...jane. I’m Jane,” you lie. Ruth smiles sweetly at you. “Nice to meet you, Jane! I wish we coulda met under better circumstances, but either way, I’m happy to meet you!” She pats your back in a friendly way, gentle but firm. “Does your ankle still hurt?”

“Yeah,” you admit, “but not as bad as before. I think I’m just...regaining my strength.”

Almost as if on cue, your stomach growls loudly. Ruth giggles. “Oh, guess you’re hungry! I bet you worked up an appetite, huh!” You blink. _Food?_  “Yeah,” you agree, suddenly eager. “Well, lemme help you to the kitchen? Mary’s just getting lunch ready,” Ruth offers. “Oh.....okay,” you agree.

She takes your crutches from you and leans them against the wall, offering her shoulder for support. She has the tray tucked under her left arm while you lean against her right side, her arm wrapping around you. You both slowly make your way to the kitchen.

The rest of this building is decorated in a simple yet elegant manner. You notice something that had made the place seem off initially - the corners of the hallways, door frames, and rooms were all curved. There were no sharp angles in the architecture of the building - even the junction of walls seemed curved. It was a very unique design, that was for sure. 

An inviting aroma catches your attention. Your mouth waters as you smell delicious food cooking.

You finally make it to the kitchen and you’re surprised to find that this beveled look applies even to the appliances. The stove is curved, as is the microwave and dishwasher. A taller, skinnier woman with deep brunette hair and startling blue eyes turns to you as you enter. She is incredibly beautiful, and she has an air of curiosity as she stares at you.

“I see our guest is finally awake,” she says softly. Her voice is clear and smooth, like caramel. 

“Yep,” Ruth responds. “Almost ran her over, haha...she’s already up and on her own.”

“What a miracle,” Mary says with a smile. “Truly, Levi’s work has improved in bounds since the last one.”

_The last one?_

You tense up.

Ruth’s expression changes. She glances at you nervously before quickly glancing away. “Oh, yeah, well, y’know, that’s good ‘n all, and our little miracle here is pretty hungry after all, you know,” she says rapidly. “Well, I can certainly fix that,” Mary declares warmly, turning back to the numerous large pots on the stove, oblivious to the sudden tension in the room. Or, perhaps, ignoring it.

You let go of Ruth, silently making your way to the dinner table, and sink into the chair carefully. Ruth helps Mary set the table, fetching her bowls and plates for her cooking. You notice that there are trays set out on the counter with different amounts of bowls on each of them. Mary carefully pours out steaming soup into each bowl, angling it just right so the noodles didn’t spill. It smells wonderful. 

Ruth brings you a bowl, placing a pair of chopsticks next to you. She’s also carrying a pitcher of water, and she pours it into your glass. You waste no time digging into your food, gulping hungrily at it. Ruth grabs a bowl for herself and sits next to you, smiling nervously as she eats.   
Other servants enter the room and help Mary carry the trays out of the kitchen. Their eyes are downcast, and none of them make eye contact with you. Uneasiness returns once more. _Who are they?_

Soon, all the trays have been cleared from the kitchen, and the empty pots pile messily in the sink. _And where did they take all that food?_

You turn your attention back to Ruth as you finish your food. She’s digging in her pocket again and pulls out a small ziploc bag containing white pills. She reaches in with chubby fingers, grabbing one. She extends her hand out to you, offering the pill. “It’s for pain,” she chirps. You stare at the pill and back up at her. “What is it?” you ask. “Tiaranol,” she says, seeming a little confused at your wariness. “...I’m alright,” you say, shaking your head at her hand. “Thank you.” Ruth slowly pulls her hand back, pouting a little. She seems hurt...  
Suddenly, someone reaches out from behind you and places a bottle of pills on the table. The Tiaranol label is clearly visible on the side. You glance behind you, startled, and find Mary looking down at you with an unreadable expression. “No need being coy,” she says softly, eyes slowly scanning you. You start fidgeting nervously, almost involuntarily. Her gaze is very strong. “We know you’ve been through a lot. We’re only here to help. Please, help yourself.” She nods at the bottle she’s placed in front of you before letting go of it, wiping her hands on her apron and making her way over to the sink to clean up the pots. 

You slowly open the pill bottle, popping two into your mouth and downing it with water. It would help the pain, so what was the harm? Besides, the last thing you wanted to do was offend Mary, at this point. The woman was very calm and collected, but there was an inexplicable force behind her words. You aren’t ready to challenge that. 

You raise your head to Ruth, scratching your arm. “Um, Ruth?” you say hesitantly. “Y-yeah?” she responds hopefully. “Do you have a phone I can use?” She tilts her head at you. “Well, Andrew prob’ly still has the phone you had when you first came. We don’t really have a lotta technology here unless it’s, like, necessary.” She glances over at Mary, who is still silently cleaning the dishes, her back facing both of you. “Only specific people have phones...” she trails off, returning her gaze to you. “Why do you want one?”

“I need to call my family to tell them I’m alright.” Sort of. Ruth laughs nervously. “Oh, right, of course, ahaha. L-lemme see if I can find Andrew so he can give you your phone back.” She leaves the room quickly, her heels clicking softly on the floor. 

Mary turns of the water.

You notice the sudden silence and slowly look over at her. 

She turns to you, eyes burning with curiosity. “So, someone attacked you?” she asks blatantly. “Y-yes,” you respond, picking at your nails nervously. “Why?” Mary asks again. “I...uh...I don’t know. I think, maybe, it might have been a stalker...he waited until I was home alone...” _God, I don’t know what to say, I can’t tell them the truth or else they’ll know!_ you think frantically. Mary is staring at you silently, waiting for you to continue. “I had a bat so I tried attacking him but he got the upper hand. So I ran, but he caught me, and he dragged me to his car...” you touch your lips, recalling the night before. “I think he had chloroform. I woke up in his car, and we were driving through the mountain forest. He said he was taking me to...” You catch yourself before you say it. “To, uh, to his favorite place in the forest, his cabin, where he takes, other girls...” Mary narrows her eyes ever so slightly. “But the car crashed in the rain, and I saw some lights in the distance and followed them here.”

Mary purses her lips, her eyes glittering. “Sounds like a busy night,” she says smoothly. “You could say that,” you respond tritely. It was hard to read her. “I’m glad you’re alive,” she says, “not many would be put through that kind of test and survive as well as you have.” 

Test?

You stare at her silently.

She looks like she wants to say something more, but Ruth bursts back into the room, huffing slightly from the exertion of walking fast. “U-uhm, Jane, Andrew wants to see you.”

You blink in surprise. “Oh. Ok.” Ruth hurries to your side to help you up and leads you out of the room. Mary stares at you as you pass her on the way out. Her mouth curves into a small smile as her blue eyes meet your gaze for a moment. You quickly look away, biting your lip.

Ruth helps you across the building to where Andrew was. He was in some office near the front of the house. You can see the foyer you had laid down in, at the entrance of the building...house...thing. You can see the front door from here, and you feel a sudden urge to make a bolt for it. He motions for you both to enter his office, and Ruth pulls you inside. Your chance is gone.

“Thank you, Ruth,” Andrew says warmly. “I just have some things to discuss with Jane, if you don’t mind.” “Not at all,” Ruth replies, bowing slightly. She then hurries out of the room, her dress swishing behind her as she closes the door.

“Now, Jane,” Andrew says, turning around and unplugging a phone from the wall charger. He holds the phone up to you, his expression friendly, but his grey eyes dark. “Is this your phone?”

It’s the black phone from the car. The hacker’s phone. A blue eye logo is displayed on the lock screen. Ruth’s words echo in your head. _Mint Eye._

Your voice catches in your throat.

He’s staring at you. You have to think fast.

“No,” you say honestly. “I didn’t have time to explain to her. That’s...my attacker’s phone. He, uh, fried mine.”

“Did you call anyone?” 

Okay, now you are alarmed. You kept yourself collected while panic rises inside your chest. “No,” you lie, eyelids fluttering. “I couldn’t get it unlocked.”

“Where is he now?” 

“Who?” you ask. “Your assailant,” Andrew responds.

“I...I left him in the car...” “Car?” “When we crashed.”

He looks worried now. “I see. And you’ve told me the truth, Jane? All of it?”

“Yes,” you breathe, trying not to shake. “Good girl,” he says, nodding. His voice is kind again. “Thank you. I’m sorry for your troubles.”

He stands up as if to leave, but you interrupt him, asking abruptly, “Do you think I could use a phone? I want to let my family know I’m safe.”

“Your family,” Andrew says shortly. “Y-yes,” you respond, fiddling with your fingers. “I see. Give me one moment.”

He leaves the room with the phone, pulling the door behind him, but it doesn’t close all the way. It slowly opens a bit, giving you enough room to hear someone approach. “Andrew,” a voice says, and you recognize it as Thomas. “Yes?” Andrew responds impatiently.

“Paul’s back.”

Silence. 

“He’s really hurt. It looks like he dragged himself through hell and back to get here. He barely looks alive...”

Your stomach tightens. _What? Could it be...?_

“Get Levi,” Andrew says sharply. The two men walk off together, their footsteps echoing in the distance. 

You stand, struggling to open the door. _I have to get out of here! If that’s the unknown man, then...I’m in huge fucking trouble!!_ You grasp the handle tightly, pulling the large door with all your might, when-

Mary greets you on the other side of the door, her blue eyes staring down at you icily.

“Where are you running off too, little miracle?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (( I couldn't stop writing sooo here's the next one. I had to split the plot into two parts because I have a lot of things happening at once. Enjoy! ))


End file.
